Muddawg

On 7/17/2006 at 10:21 PM, BellaireGuy said:

The one with his dog Storm was Ralph Williams. Art Grindle was a few years before him. The Firesign Theater did a takeoff on Ralph Williams, "here in the city of emphysema."

I thought Art Grindle went to prison. I remember his commercials on Saturday afternoons on (I think) Channel 2 in between old movies like Johnny Weismuller in Tarzan or the Marx Brothers.

I remember it the other way around - the movies were in between the commercials!! And they were on Saturday mornings. 

On 11/2/2005 at 10:58 PM, DJ V Lawrence said:

Yeah, it moved to Akron in 1992. I don't mean to brag, but I got to take one of the last rides on that same Goodyear Blimp before it left. I still don't understand why they moved though. It was a fun ride, and you got to see different cool things up there that you couldn't see in an airplane. Like when they would fly over Hakeem Olajuwon's old house, and you'd get do see his backyard swimming pool with a basketball court painted at the bottom of it

Does anyone know why they moved in the first place? (other than the fact that our football and baseball teams played in a dome)

On 4/26/2006 at 12:35 PM, H-Town Man said:

Why did we ever get the blimp in the first place? What advantage did we have over Akron, the home of tires?

At the time, Goodyear had 3 blimps, one based in Akron, the one in Spring, and one in Los Angeles.  The blimps were often sent to big football games in outdoor stadiums to provide "overhead coverage" for ABC primarily, and advertising for Goodyear. The three bases were to provide strategic locations around the country for these events. After some years of this, Goodyear decided to consolidate the bases and returned the Houston and LA blimps to Akron. Soon afterward, they all just kinda disappeared from view. I lived in Spring at the time, just a few miles from that base, and enjoyed watching the blimp in the skies all the time, especially at night. But it would definitely get my dog to barking!!

On 5/7/2020 at 12:30 AM, DarleneinPasadena said:

Okay, I'm 14 years late finding this question, but I think of these posts as just building an encyclopedia of information for future Houston history buffs.  So here is what I remember.  I believe Woodridge is the name of the street that runs behind Gulfgate.  It crosses the Gulf Freeway where the Woodridge Baptist church is (or was) located.  If you left the church and drove down Woodridge south toward the 610 Loop, I believe that you would find Roy Rogers Roast Beef's formal location on the right.  Last time I was down that street, I think there was a Wendy's on the right, so Roy Rogers would have been located a bit further down on the right just before you reach the 610 Loop.  That is the best I can do with my aging memory.   I don't think Roy Rogers Roast Beef was around for very long, but I thought it was a good place to eat...quick and affordable if you enjoyed roast beef.

Roy Roger's WAS good. I worked at the old Mobil service station on the SE corner of the Gulf Freeway and Woodridge. Every Saturday and Sunday, I would walk to Roy Roger's for lunch or dinner, and get either their roast beef sandwich or fried chicken. I loved both!! Then, when the McDonalds opened up next to us, I'd go there. All the time until I got sick of it. We'd been given coupons for a free Big Mac to hand out to our fillup customers. But I used many more myself than I handed out. To this day, I still can't eat at a McDonalds.